DanceHall

Sonjah Stanley Niaah

• Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780776619040
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

DanceHall combines cultural geography, performance studies and cultural studies to examine performance culture across the Black Atlantic. Taking Jamaican dancehall music as its prime example, DanceHall reveals a complex web of cultural practices, politics, rituals, philosophies, and survival strategies that link Caribbean, African and African diasporic performance.

Combining the rhythms of reggae, digital sounds and rapid-fire DJ lyrics, dancehall music was popularized in Jamaica during the later part of the last century by artists such as Shabba Ranks, Shaggy, Beenie Man and Buju Banton. Even as its popularity grows around the world, a detailed understanding of dancehall performance space, lifestyle and meanings is missing. Author Sonjah Stanley Niaah relates how dancehall emerged from the marginalized youth culture of Kingston's ghettos and how it remains inextricably linked to the ghetto, giving its performance culture and spaces a distinct identity. She reveals how dancehall's migratory networks, embodied practice, institutional frameworks, and ritual practices link it to other musical styles, such as American blues, South African kwaito, and Latin American reggaetòn. She shows that dancehall is part of a legacy that reaches from the dance shrubs of West Indian plantations and the early negro churches, to the taxi-dance halls of Chicago and the ballrooms of Manhattan. Indeed, DanceHall stretches across the whole of the Black Atlantic's geography and history to produce its detailed portrait of dancehall in its local, regional, and transnational performance spaces.

INDEX

The page numbers in this index refer to the print edition of this book.

“f” refers to figure; “t” to table.

A

Above a Dem Crew (dancing crew), 47, 119

Ackee (DJ), 151

Ad Astra (club), 67, 78

African

rituals, 89

traditions, xviii

African/Caribbean Diasporic practice, 188

African Diaspora, 75, 87, 109, 121, 177, 184, 187, 193, 195

in the Caribbean, 31

culture, 15–16

practices, 87

African Diasporic

cultural practices, 15–16

culture, 15–16

embodied practices, 87

embodiment, performance practice and memorializing, 11

identity, 6

movement patterns, 188

African Star (sound system), 102

Afro-Rican Bomba, 18

AIDS pandemic, 15–16

“Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But the Rent,” 107

Ajayi, Omofolabo, 135–36, 196

All-Deportee Friends and Family Link-Up, 104

The Alliance (DJ), 74, 99

All Jamaica Opportunity Hour Contest, 56f3.3

American big bands, 26

amusement arcades, 66

the angel (dance move), 142, 146–47

Anniversary dancers, 100–101

Appadurai, Arjun, 48, 196

Appliance Traders Complex, 79

Asantewa, Yaa, 137

Asfaw, Empress Menen (Dancehall Queen), 137

Assassin (DJ), 72, 196

Asylum (club), 26, 58, 68, 78, 80, 93–94, 101, 170

Asylum Ladies Night, 93

Atiko, Gyawu, 135

Attitude Girls, 119

Austin-Broos, Diane, 91, 196

Australian Dancehall Queen Contest, 164

B

Baby Cham, 1, 70, 72–73, 196

Baby Grand, 78

‘Babylonian,’ 4

“Babylon likkie likkie and beggie beggie,” 64

Backline events, 77, 92–93

the back to basics (dance move), 126

A Back to School Treat, 100

“badmanship,” 73

Bad Mind Sunday, 94

Bailey, Richie “Feelings,” 108–9, 196

Bakare-Yusuf, Bibi, 8, 134, 196

Baltimore link-up, 104

Banton, Buju

about, xv, 3, 9, 48, 63, 114, 126–27, 186, 198

Friends for Life Tour, schedule for, 156–57t6.1

Rasta Got Soul Tour, schedule for, 158–59t6.3

role as translocal and transnational actor, 154

Too Bad Tour, schedule for, 157–58t6.2

on tour, 154–60

Baraka, Amiri

Blues People: Negro Experience in White America and the Music that Developed From It, 17, 21, 24–25, 146–47, 196

“Improvisations on ‘Wise, Why’s, Y’z’ (excerpts from Africa Section)”, 192–93, 196

Baron’s Plaza, 79

Barrow, Steve, 4, 196

“bashment,” 111

Baskin (dancer), 119–20, 122, 166–67

Bass Odyssey (sound system), 103

Batchame Lawn, 57

Baxter, Ivy, 2, 146, 196

B. B. King’s Blues Club, 158t6.2

“Beat Street,” 77

Beckles, Hilary, 15, 21, 197

Beenie Man (Moses Davis) (DJ), 11, 112, 114, 126–27, 129, 145, 152, 171, 197

Beijing Olympic Games, 33, 129, 166–67

Belly (Williams), 128

Bembe Squad, 108

Bembe Thursdays, 94, 108–10, 142

Bennett, Andy, 8, 197

BET. See Black Entertainment Television (bet)

Beverly Hamilton, 2

Biggy Sm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Livication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Out of Many . . . One Dancehall
• Introducing Performance Geography
• Performing Geography in Kingston’s Dancehall Spaces
• Ritual Space, Celebratory Space
• Geographies of Embodiment—Dance, Status, Style
• Performing Boundarylessness
• A Common Transnational Space
• References
• Index